The Department of the Environment called yesterday morning to advise that a regular inspection of the nest had revealed some hatched babies deep in the sand and that they would usually emerge in the coolness of the evening and head to the ocean.

As this was happening six days ahead of schedule preparations were hurried to completion, lights were arranged to be off, guests were notified of best practice and members of staff were scheduled to stand guard during the night.

However around mid-afternoon three visiting children discovered hundreds of tiny fin tracks in the sand and one baby emerging from the nest. They majority of the turtles snuck past everyone, The Reef had produced their own brand of stealth turtles!

Our one straggler was kept safely until night and was sucessfully released by Lindsay and the kids of the resorts activity programme. This group was lucky enough at the same time to see another baby turtle emerge and make the short journey to the ocean. At least one of the turtles seemed to have a proper sense of timing….

The DOE came up today to excavate the site and discovered that there were 94 sucessfully hatched eggs in a relatively shallow nest (which would account for the early hatch). One baby was discovered still waiting to make the dig to the surface. Our head concierge Jake will oversee his release tonight, bringing to a close, for this year at least, our fabulous turtle adventure.

Our nest!

Great excitement amongst staff and guests at The Reef today! Keen eyed staff members noticed the tell-tale signs earlier this week and the Department of Environment have just confirmed that we have a loggerhead turtle nest on our beach.

The mama turtle will have hatched many years ago on this same stretch of white sand and has returned and nested right in front of the hotel.

We are terribly proud of our nest and are constructing a bamboo fence around it to keep it safe.

In 55 days time, on or around th 5th of August, staff and guests will dim all the lights, ensure that each tiny turtle makes its way safely to the water and then celebrate the fact that, safely launched into the big wide world, they will one day travel back to us.

First things first! We have begun composting our kitchen and grounds refuse on site, thus dramatically reducing our garbage output and creating our own wonderful fertilizer.

Last night we played host to Bradley Johnson of the DOE who came to talk to East End divemasters about the lion fish invasion and train them in capturing techniques. http://www.gov.ky/portal/page?_pageid=1142,4332603&_dad=portal&_schema=portal

Watch this space for updates and news! If you have any comments or ideas please contact Ms Green at msgreen@caymaniac.ky.